Spiritual Beings having a Human Experience

"Just when I thought I had a handle on life, the handle broke."
— Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic Nun and Humanitarian)

Since reading about Mother Teresa's humanitarian efforts in 2nd grade, I silently declared her as the most powerful inspirational and influential person in my world. I studied her, immersed myself in her failures and successes from a distance. To me she transformed her own life by making proactive decisions every step of the way. A born teacher, with a spirit that was unlimited in gracious giving of herself. In a way, a very strategic person, and when I read this quote, "Just when I thought I had a handle of life, the handle broke." It made me think of how little control we have on "handling our lives," no matter what our ego would like us to believe. I once heard that the only control we have is how we choose to respond. That made me understand, that responses come from our thoughts, so to modify our response, we would have to do shift our thoughts, which comes from our original conditioning from repetitive thinking the same way. So, to change our thinking, means we can change our response. Everything else is out of our control, now that's a sobering thought, to know we have free will in one area of our lives. It's quality over quantity right!? It's a difficult pill to swallow, but it does not need to be.

Maybe that's why when the "handle" breaks, it sends us to a place of learning, growth and true transformation. Perhaps it's a necessary mechanism to jolt us forward during our spiritual adventure. After all, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.